On November 12, 2025, the Allegheny County Council held the second of three public hearings on the proposed fiscal year 2026 operating and capital budgets. Presentations were given by the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) and the County Manager's Office. Council members asked questions and expressed support for various initiatives.
CCAC President Dr. Bullock and Vice President for Finance Kathy Jacobs presented the college's budget request and highlights:
Council members praised the college's strategic enrollment and program expansion. Councilmember Hallam (via phone) asked what a blank check would fund (debt, salaries, public safety institute renovation). Discussion included aviation program expansion (air traffic control), nursing partnerships with county facilities (jail, Kane centers), and the Fire VEF scholarship program.
County Manager John Fournier and Budget Director Tim Cox presented the proposed FY2026 county budget:
Council members asked about Kane nurse staffing (Fournier defended tightening ratios to reduce agency costs; Councilmember Paul Mary expressed concern), cybersecurity (Fournier declined public specifics), capital projects (energy efficiency at downtown campus), administrative fee adjustments (assumed in budget), jail population reduction (multidisciplinary initiative underway). Councilmember Filiaggi pushed for opioid settlement funds for emergency services; Fournier offered to follow up.
John, Pam. You ready? Good evening. Tonight we continue with the second of our three public hearings on the two thousand twenty-six operating and capital budgets. We'll hear from the community college of Allegheny County and the administrative branch of the county government. When we get to the QA portion, I'd like the members to please only ask a few questions at a time to give everyone a chance. She's the vice president for finance. She joined the college on July one of twenty twenty-five. Today we are here to present the college's uh summary of the budget presentation. We'd like to start each of you have one of our packets. What's really exciting to share is that when we look at the students who select the community college as their first choice compared to our public private institutions, students who choose the CCAC in the first two years will save about $26,000 compared to a public education and $75,000 compared to a private education. As students go through their studies, 81% of our students graduate debt-free. Our student spending impact is about $26.4, but the annual impact of CCAC is $2.1 billion or equivalent to $22,938 jobs. When we compare ourselves to students or individuals who do not get an education beyond the high school, our students will earn an additional $11,600 each year compared to someone with a high school diploma working in Pennsylvania. When we look at the return on investment for every dollar spent, students gain $5.50. Taxpayers gain $2.70 in added tax revenue and public sector savings, and society gains an additional $10.90 in added income and social savings. Across all of our campuses, we have a myriad of support services to ensure that our students have access to the services that they need to be successful in their studies, including academic advising, both academic planning and course scheduling, student success coaches, counseling center services, personal transfer and career counseling, military and veteran services, behavior health services, disability resource services, resource navigators to support students in navigating through the various programs and services, and then a list of scholarships, transportation assistance, food pantries, clothes, closets, and emergency funding. We continue to ensure that our programs represent the needs of our community and our region. We offer over 130 programs, including the arts and humanities, business and accounting, computer information technology, culinary arts and hospitality, tourism, general studies, liberal arts, industrial technology, trades and transportation, nursing and allied health programs, science and mathematics, and social science and education. Our programs aligned with many institutions. Many students seamlessly transfer to colleges over 500 colleges. We have articulation agreements with 40 plus colleges and universities, and more being added each year. We pride ourselves in indicating that CCAC is an affordable choice to get high quality education for transfer or to earn a credential that goes directly into the workforce. When we compare ourselves to the other 14 community colleges, you will see on page 9 that CCAC is the most affordable institution of all of the colleges in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Our tuition for 2526 is 130 dollars per credit, along with the additional fees taking our total up to 167.50. When we look at our full-time enrollment, starting on page 11, you will see over the last three years, we have had a steady increase. In 2324, we were at $17,529, and then for 24-25, we are at $18,302, which represents about a 4.4% increase. Continuing on page 12, you will also see the full-time equivalent by semester. In the summer, which is our smallest area, we have been steady with the last summer session significantly higher at 969. In the fall, that was also a steady increase from 22 through 25, starting at 7,521 and ending at 7,722. In the spring, that's also been a steady increase in our FTE from 6,298 to 6,973. And then summer one with a steady increase also ending this past summer at 2,268. We build our budget on FTE, and we have met our FTE over the last three years. In our graduation, based on the numbers, you add three years to it to know the year that it's impacted. So for fall 18, that would represent graduates in 2021. In fall of 19, that would represent graduates in 2022. And in fall of 2021, that represent the most recent graduate data, which is at 24.2%, which aligns and exceeds our crediting body's graduation rate of 23 percent. I will ask Vice President Jacobs to review the budget contribution summary. Good evening. So the summary of our budget contributions, the operating budget is supported by tuition fees, appropriations, and other miscellaneous revenue. So for 2526, our budget was built on a 4.2 percent increase from the 2425 budget. It's based on 18,230 FTEs. So our tuition revenue that we plan to bring in is 32,831 with fees of almost 10 million. State aid of 40 million, county aid with the appropriations that go for capital debt service would be 36 million, and other revenue would be 5.246. So when you look for the it is a 2 percent increase in the county contribution from 35.00, I'm sorry, 36.04 to 36.76. And I would tell you on page 15 there was a typo. The 2 percent increase is 3604 to 36.76, not the 35.3. So my apologies for that. And it does include the 37.75 million for debt service that is offered to us. Workforce development, we plan on bringing in non-credit programming revenue of 3.5.